Blizzard does not hire a new team to create premium items, they have old workers create them. What happens when people are spending more time on one thing and less on another? One of those things goes down in quality. Or, are we going to fool ourselves and assume that everyone is spending more time working to be able to create the same amount of "free" content along with premium items?

You get frustrated because people don't get it? It's not quite so simple.

Sorry, but I don't want to pay a fee to be able to have a chance at paying another fee to get things.

Not to mention they charge way more for things like mounts and pets than even F2P games do, it's just weird. If they want to have a subscription + micro transaction model, they need to do like other games and go F2P with subscription optional plus perks to go along with it.

I'm one of those that have been playing since around 2006 as well and unsubbed again - I did it during Cata. At some point the game just gets boring and you move on until the next expac. I don't see why people can't just do that without whining about it. With that said...

The Blizzard store items are NEEDED badly for Blizzard right now. A news article out last week highlighted that importance of these microtransactions and Hearthstone to ActiBlizz. They are losing Chinese players in droves right now because the market is so competitive over there. However, those accounts are relatively low revenue accounts. So even though they've lost 4 million players since the peak, it hasn't massively impacted the bottom line. Why? The Blizzard Store. They are able to offset any losses with micro transactions for in game items and services.

We see activity like this happen in many industries. The airlines are the big ones with the ancillary revenue. Your ticket gets your butt on the plane, but in most cases you pay for everything else in an a la carte fashion (Southwest is about the only one that doesn't do that). It is no different here. Your $15 gets your butt through the door but if you want the pretty sparkles and the next over saturated mount, you pay extra.

Heartstone is the next big step for Blizzard moving into the F2P arena. I think they are going to watch it very closely on how the micro transactions work out for it and I wouldn't be shocked if WOW goes F2P with microtrans at some point. I'm think more like a SWTOR model where you have both systems running side by side, but the better revenue stream comes out of breaking things apart.

We can't fault Blizzard for loading down the online store with more options. It is almost clock work - put in a new mount or pet = $5 million (or thereabouts) pay day. This is something the Western customer base has supported so far and it is helping to offset any potential losses from the Eastern customer base. Love it, hate it...its business. Will we ever get to the point where we got F2P and you have to pay $20 for a token to unlock the raids, BGs, or arenas for a month? I doubt it. However I can definitely see it expanded greatly to more transmog gear, tri-spec, player housing/farm 2.0, better bank/repair bots, etc. Nothing that gives anyone a clear advantage in defeating encounters, but pure quality of life enhancements.

Blizzard does not hire a new team to create premium items, they have old workers create them. What happens when people are spending more time on one thing and less on another? One of those things goes down in quality. Or, are we going to fool ourselves and assume that everyone is spending more time working to be able to create the same amount of "free" content along with premium items?

You get frustrated because people don't get it? It's not quite so simple.

The Blizzard store items are NEEDED badly for Blizzard right now. A news article out last week highlighted that importance of these microtransactions and Hearthstone to ActiBlizz. They are losing Chinese players in droves right now because the market is so competitive over there.

I hope you realize the Chinese pay model has always been something like "pay to play once at an internet cafe, now Blizzard counts you as a subscriber". They have been padding their subscription numbers in this way since they released the game there (remember that peak in Wrath? Hey WoW was released in China around that time!). It would not surprise me if Chinese players are just not playing WoW in internet cafes anymore and have moved onto the other popular games there, which are LoL and Dota. I'm sorry, but it is hard to really gauge the Chinese player base and how long they have been playing and how much they play because of how their subscription model works, plus I really doubt they contribute THAT much to profits considering how their subscription model works as well. To say this store is needed because of them is something no one but Blizzard will ever know.

You pay a monthly fee to be able to log in to your account and play; nothing more, nothing less.

The Blizzard store is not a slippery slope, it is a smart business move to bring in more money for the company. The more resources Blizzard has, the more content they can develop and the better off we are as players.

So it's ok for them to start charging us for raid/pvp gear since we're able to play without it. And the extra income and development might just go into new items for the store.

It's all about cred dude, its ALL about credibility. =P in a world where everyoen and their dog are anonymous, theres gotta be times to verify stuff.

Also, whya re you goin after me when ur the one talking about an imaginary caste system that blizz somehow treats us as?

You pay an initial fee.
You pay a subscription fee.
You are still locked out of content within the game.

All facts.

It's an insult to peoples intelligence to try and spin that any other way, and it's disingenuous to give the excuse "oh they are only cosmetic".......

99% of the things in the game are cosmetic. From the way my character looks, the way he attacks, casting animation, the way gear looks. "It's only cosmetic" is a piss poor excuse for a disgusting business practice that is only succeeding because of the gullibility of the majority of blizzards "fanbase".

Most MMO developers add itemshops so they can reduce the cost of their subscriptions or other premium services.

Blizzard adds an itemshop so they'll have more resources to make more item shop items.

I have to admit, I laughed because it's at the very least partly true.

Originally Posted by atrixx

I'm one of those that have been playing since around 2006 as well and unsubbed again - I did it during Cata. At some point the game just gets boring and you move on until the next expac. I don't see why people can't just do that without whining about it. With that said...

The Blizzard store items are NEEDED badly for Blizzard right now. A news article out last week highlighted that importance of these microtransactions and Hearthstone to ActiBlizz. They are losing Chinese players in droves right now because the market is so competitive over there. However, those accounts are relatively low revenue accounts. So even though they've lost 4 million players since the peak, it hasn't massively impacted the bottom line. Why? The Blizzard Store. They are able to offset any losses with micro transactions for in game items and services.

We see activity like this happen in many industries. The airlines are the big ones with the ancillary revenue. Your ticket gets your butt on the plane, but in most cases you pay for everything else in an a la carte fashion (Southwest is about the only one that doesn't do that). It is no different here. Your $15 gets your butt through the door but if you want the pretty sparkles and the next over saturated mount, you pay extra.

Heartstone is the next big step for Blizzard moving into the F2P arena. I think they are going to watch it very closely on how the micro transactions work out for it and I wouldn't be shocked if WOW goes F2P with microtrans at some point. I'm think more like a SWTOR model where you have both systems running side by side, but the better revenue stream comes out of breaking things apart.

We can't fault Blizzard for loading down the online store with more options. It is almost clock work - put in a new mount or pet = $5 million (or thereabouts) pay day. This is something the Western customer base has supported so far and it is helping to offset any potential losses from the Eastern customer base. Love it, hate it...its business. Will we ever get to the point where we got F2P and you have to pay $20 for a token to unlock the raids, BGs, or arenas for a month? I doubt it. However I can definitely see it expanded greatly to more transmog gear, tri-spec, player housing/farm 2.0, better bank/repair bots, etc. Nothing that gives anyone a clear advantage in defeating encounters, but pure quality of life enhancements.

This is exactly right. I will never understand why it's so hard for people to grasp that (any MMO) WoW is the product of a business and therefore subject to the changes that the leadership of said business desires.

No business forces you to spend money with it, you do so voluntarily. There really aren't many gray areas there. You either find your happy with it / justify the expenditure, or you decide that it's a dealbreaker for you and you don't.

You pay an initial fee.
You pay a subscription fee.
You are still locked out of content within the game.

All facts.

The same could be said of many games nowadays.

The difference is that the content you're locked out of is purely aesthetic novelties, rather than any truly meaningful content (read: content which is part of the core of the game). If they were selling unique DPS potions or high-end armor, you might have a meaningful point.

Most MMO developers add itemshops so they can reduce the cost of their subscriptions or other premium services.

Blizzard adds an itemshop so they'll have more resources to make more item shop items.

You can't know that for a fact.

What if *what if* Blizzard adds itemshop items so that it can keep the monthly subscription fee at $15. $15 isn't what it was in 2004, but can you imagine how pissed everyone would be if they raised the monthly subscription fee from $15 to $20? Perhaps generating revenue from the itemshop allows Blizzard to keep the monthly subscription fee at $15 instead of raising it, which in turn leads to a happier playerbase and better company image?